About The Atlas

1Why an Atlas?

We would like to democratise the future: to raise the profiles of the people and projects working to create a better world. Everyone should be able to understand and engage in the topics that affect us all.

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Thirty years of digital revolution have brought previously unimaginable advances in the way we live and work.

Today mankind does incredible things. We will soon be able to change the bodies we are born with, printing 3D organs to save them when they fail and creating birth-control microchips that women can turn on and off. We shape the world around us, transforming violent cities like Medellín by building ultra-modern libraries and putting moving staircases on mountains. We have flipped education to provide the world with a global interactive classroom.

It seems our ingenuity has no limits; the horizon of future possibilities is dazzling. Yet many of us keep our eyes on the ground. We enjoy the consumer goods that technological advance brings us, our smart phones, our laptops, but when it comes to the real business of the future, making the world a better place, we are too often spectators rather than participants.In the 1870s, at the end of the last comparable upheaval in human society, the industrial revolution, the English artist and thinker William Morris looked at the change around him. He saw a world where innovation had made it possible to emancipate mankind from dull labour, to be free for the first time to enjoy the pursuit of cultural expression and creativity. And yet it hadn’t happened. Morris said: “I do not want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few.”

We think the same is true today of the future.

We are not a large group, just concerned citizens who believe everyone should have a share in the way the world will be. Our rallying cry is ‘Democratise the Future’, which simply means we wish the future to be open to everyone in the way that Morris hoped art could be. “What business have we with art at all,” Morris demanded, “unless all can share it?”

A decade after that question was asked, North America’s National Geographic Society embarked on its mission to further the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. It is now one of the world’s largest non-profit scientific and educational organisations. National Geographic has funded more than 11,000 research, conservation and exploration projects plus a multitude of education programs.

We feel the same way about the future as those educational pioneers did about geography. We want everyone to participate in the onward journey of invention and discovery.

It is true that we face daunting problems and that our obsession with the short‐term has caused a global financial crisis and created environmental disasters. But it is because we believe in the future that we are optimistic. “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future,” says the American intellectual and activist Noam Chomsky. “Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

If you agree, then help us make it so by bringing together the most ambitious and inspiring projects for the future in one place. It can be your own project or someone else’s. It might be a technological innovation, an environmental advance, a medical breakthrough or an ambitious social programme. We don’t mind. As long as it is an innovation for the greater good, then please share it with the Atlas of the Future.

In the 1870s an atlas was a book. Our hope is that Atlas of the Future will be a beacon. As William Morris almost said: “What business have we with the future at all unless all can share it?”

2Atlas Projects

We only choose projects that are real, innovative, with long-term vision and committed to lasting positive impact.

In order to choose projects that are on the Atlas we have four criteria:

Projects have to be real. That means they aren’t dealing with the probabilities of futurology, the stuff of science fiction or in the research stages. They are really happening.

Projects have to be innovative. They bring a creative element or unique contribution to solving the challenges facing humanity.

Projects have to be created with long-term vision. The Atlas is not about one-off, flash in the pan ideas, but a real dedication to the future.

Projects are committed to lasting positive impact. These are the innovations that find original solutions to the world’s problems, however big or small, and then keep on contributing to the greater good.

3Explore

You can journey through the Atlas projects by topic or theme, country or city – or simply enjoy getting lost.

Want to know how we will eat, create, communicate, learn, build, vote, and even reproduce? Explore thousands of Atlas projects, from science and technology to education, energy, agriculture, urbanism and politics, by selecting topics or category filters. Discover innovations from every corner of the globe by pinpointing destinations through the search bar or map. This is an Atlas, after all!

4Contribute

The task of democratising the future is immense and we cannot do alone. Tell us your opinion, add an Atlas entry, request a presentation or donate.

If you feel, like us, that the future is worth working for and you have an amazing project you think everyone should know about, become an Atlas Contributor. We want to know about exciting projects creating a new world. You can submit your own project or someone else’s and it only takes a few minutes. We get excited if you’re excited. Feel free to update it at any time as work progresses.

We want to help your innovations reach the most amount of people. Our editorial team are always on the look out for the inspirational people behind the projects to interview as FutureHeroes, where we get the opportunity to raise profiles to the next level – and map their Top 5 favourite projects for our AtlasCharts.

5Who we are

Atlas of the Future is inspired by the talent and energy of people across the world working to solve our biggest challenges and create a better tomorrow. As part of a non-profit being launched in Barcelona and London, our mission is ‘democratising the future’ by speaking human.

Mariona A. Ciller

Mariona loves hardware and interfaces. The web designer, coder and cool hunter has clients such as NASA, Inditex, Budweiser, Maxim Magazine and Carnegie Mellon. When not organising science and tech events for Google, MIT, Barcelona City Hall, la Caixa Foundation and Smashing Conference, she designs workshops with kids in an old chocolate factory she calls home.

Barcelona

Eleanor Ford

Eleanor is Innovation Director of the Time Out Group, Co-founder of the Point People and advisory board member at 100% Open. She is a networks person with a passion for new ventures, and spends much of her time connecting people and ideas, building the right teams around the right projects.

London

Vicente Guallart

Vicente wants to invent the city of the future and to build it in the present, based in the principles of global connectivity and local self-sufficiency. He is director of his architectural practice Guallart Architects, he has been co-founder and director of IAAC, and Chief Architect of Barcelona City Council.

Barcelona

Annette Mees

Award-winning director/artist known for innovative theatrical and digital work that allows audiences to explore big ideas – for Tate Britain, UK Parliament, European Space Agency, WIRED, British Council, King’s College, NTW, SJ01 Biennale and NESTA. Likes bringing together people across sectors that normally don’t work together.

London

Cassie Robinson

Cassie is a Co-founder of the Point People, Co-founder/Director of Tech For Good and Founder of Civic Shop. She is a Nesta Creative Pioneer and a huge practical and strategic advocate and influencer for social innovation, working inside and outside of government and with many pioneering initiatives and agencies.

Lisa Goldapple

Strange fruit who likes to speak human. After decades of writing scripts and producing for MTV, National Geographic and The Creators Project, and writing disgraceful autobiographical short stories (under the guise of fiction) for Dazed & Confused, Sabotage Times and HERO Magazine, the storytelling adventurer hopes that showcasing the people doing “really good stuff” will rub off – on everyone.

Ed Gillespie

Originally a marine biologist, the co-founder of international sustainability agency Futerra helps organisations ‘imagine better’ and then make it happen. He circumnavigated the globe without getting on a plane and then wrote a book about the adventures, Only Planet. When not advising clients he also sits on the Board of Greenpeace UK, Energy Revolution and Growing Underground.

London

Oriol Soler

The compulsive magazine collector has spent his life extending parameters. As President of publishing cooperative group GrupCultura03 and the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the cerebral optimist sees urban planning as the long-term science par excellence, and making the world a better place for his four kids as a no-brainer.

Barcelona

Arnau Grinyó

The meticulous marketer has taken care of international brands for over ten years. Having worked for major household names all around the world, he settled back in his native Barcelona and turned 150-year-old Moritz beer company into the icon it is today. In between, he found time to get to know our small planet – and its wine – a little bit better.

Barcelona

Forma & Co

The Barcelona-based graphic design studio has worked in branding, illustration and communication projects with international clients such as Dell, Médecins Sans Frontières, Nike, Barcelona City Council and Coca-Cola. Their fun vibe and colourful approach bridges the gap between the world we live in today and the one we want to live in tomorrow.

Barcelona

Special Thanks

For the last couple of years we’ve been sharing the project with great minds from all over the world, from many areas of activity. Their help has been invaluable in setting this up.

UN Global Compact

The United Nations Global Compact is a United Nations initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. We’re proud to create the videos and briefs on their new platform Project Breakthrough, brought to you by Volans. Together we’re showcasing that long-term business success matters – and so do workers, communities and the planet. The UN Global Compact helps you do business right for all.

London, UK

Covestro

Today carbon is a dirty word, but it can be used for good. And that’s the idea behind Carbon Productivity. The brainchild of Covestro and a consortium led by our Project Breakthrough partners Volans, we’re happy to be part of their ongoing journey – spotlighting the epic potential of the king of the elements and the brilliant minds beavering away to regenerate the planet’s wobbly carbon cycle. As we struggle with climate catastrophe, this remarkable group is focused on reimagining carbon as an opportunity.

Leverkusen, Germany

Goldmsiths

An incubator for ideas, creativity has always been the hallmark of Goldsmiths University of London. Together with British Council’s Creative Economy team we’re creating CultureFutures, a new storytelling project that maps creative and cultural projects with a social mission – and the entrepreneurs behind them. Together we’re on the hunt for the talent behind work with aesthetic, financial and social value; and will showcase the artists, creators, curators and collectives who are helping to build a better planet.

London, UK

Green Lab

Green Lab is London’s first incubator workspace for urban farming entrepreneurs and ‘agritech’ startup businesses, working to create a new city community for sustainable food innovators. Located in Bermondsey inside an old school and made from recycled salvage from a local theatre company, decommissioned bio labs and materials from art freight containers, the lab takes the best from permaculture thinking and focuses on insects, algae, hydroponics, aquaculture, fermentation, aquaponics and fungi.

London, UK

Meaning

Described as “The Glastonbury of business”, Meaning is an edgy conference held in Brighton, UK that connects and inspires the people who believe in better business. We will be bringing you more meaningful videos from the 2017 event in Brighton, UK on 16 November. It will be hosted by Atlas Futurenaut Mark Stevenson, who also be joined by sustainability guru Ed Gillespie for their cabaret show ‘Power, Death and Money‘. Get 20% discount off tickets by using the code ‘Atlas’.

Brighton, UK

British Council Creative Economy

CultureFutures is a new storytelling project that maps creative and cultural projects with a social mission – and the entrepreneurs behind them. As the future is all about collaboration, Atlas of the Future is excited to join forces with Goldsmiths University and the British Council’s Creative Economy team to showcase the artists, creators, curators and collectives who are helping to build a better – and more imaginative – world. Together we’re on the hunt for the talent behind work with aesthetic, financial and social value.

London, UK

Volans

Atlas of the Future is proud to create the videos and briefs on Project Breakthrough – a platform brought to you by Volans and the UN Global Compact. As a pioneer of the sustainability movement for over 30 years, Volans chairman and prolific author John Elkington is responsible for coining the well-loved business phrases ‘triple bottom line‘ (that’s profit, people and planet) and ‘Breakthrough Capitalism‘. Together we showcase the people disrupting entire industries to show you how to think differently.

London, UK

7What’s next?

We are going to develop the Atlas further… much further. This is the first project of the Democratising the Future Society. There’s more to come.

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